To Mazatlan – 5/29/2013
Jun 1st, 2013 by rallyadmin
Yesterday we did get going early. The road was great (it should be – we’re paying enough in tolls) and the traffic light. And now that we were farther away from Guatemala and Chiapis, the checkpoints have spaced out quite a bit.
There are still plenty of checkpoints but now many of them are agricultural inspection and they are only momentary stops. “Do you have any plants or vegetables?” “No. No pets, no plants, no vegetables.” (The inspector misses the joke.) “ Have a nice day.”
We head north and east to skirt Mexico City. It’s a long detour but it saves a huge amount of time in spite of the long added distance. The GPS has come up with a new quirk. Apparently, the map set that we are using for Mexico knows about the toll roads that we are driving on but it think that the roads are not completed.
Although the GPS shows us on the correct road, it’s continually giving us directions to get off the toll road and get onto the parallel, libre (toll free), road. Or it’s just getting pissy again. The net result is that it refuses to give us distance or ETA info. Just continuous “recalc” messages.
As we’ve gotten away from the coast the weather has turned beautiful. The rain and the heavy overcast has gone and has been replaced by blue skies and temps in the middle 70’s. It’s a beautiful day. Until we are northeast of Mexico City.
From the southwest, we can see the legendary Mexico City smog blowing in on the prevailing southwest wind. It’s truly astounding. We easily 50 miles from Mexico city proper and the smog is obscuring the horizon. We turn west when we are north of Mexico City and the smog clears. We’re back to a beautiful day cruising across the high farmland.
We make good time (even with the little towns and their speed bumps.) We pass Morelia and continue on to Guadalajara. We get to Guadalajara just as the sun is going down and find a hotel for the night. Tomorrow, the last 500 kms to Mazatlan. We have to make reservations for the ferry. Get some food.
An early start tomorrow and we’ll make the ferry with no trouble.
Obi-wan